1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a winding device for winding a leading end portion of a photosensitive material around a winding core for taking up the photosensitive material.
2. Description of the Related Art
When, for example, an inspecting operation is performed for determining appropriate exposure conditions by measuring the image densities of frames of negative films which are photosensitive materials, it is necessary to connect about 50 negative films to form one elongated negative film, and to wind a leading end portion of the elongated negative film around a winding core of a takeup shaft after the leading end portion is passed through an inspecting apparatus.
In this case, since the leading end portion is conventionally wound around the winding core by manual operation by an operator, work efficiency in the winding of the leading end portion around the winding core is poor.
In addition, a winding device such as the one shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 for automatically performing the winding operation is known. In this winding device, rollers 114 are respectively supported at distal ends of four arms 112 disposed around a winding core 118 of a takeup shaft, and a guide 116 for guiding a negative film N is provided.
When the leading end of the negative film N is wound around the winding core 118 of the takeup shaft, the arms 112 in the state shown in FIG. 7 are first rotated such that the respective rollers 114 are brought into contact with the winding core 118, and the guide 116 is concurrently rotated such that the distal end of the guide 116 is located in the vicinity of the winding core 118, as shown in FIG. 8. In this state, the negative film N is fed, and is wound around the winding core 118.
After completion of the winding, the negative film N is consecutively taken up onto the winding core 118, and the rollers 114 and the guide 116 move to the outer side as the winding diameter changes.
However, although after completion of the inspection operation, it is necessary to remove the negative film N in the form of a roll wound around the winding core 118, this winding device has a drawback in that the rollers 114 and the guide 116 hinder the removal of the negative film N, resulting in poor operational efficiency.
Further, since the four arms 112, the four rollers 114, and the guide 116 are provided separately, if the winding diameter of the negative film N becomes large, a larger space is required for the device due to the space occupied by the four arms 112, the four rollers 114, and the guide 116, resulting in the drawback that the device becomes large.
In addition, a mechanism for separately actuating the guide 116 and the arms 112 for supporting the rollers 114 is required, so that there are drawbacks in that the mechanism becomes complex, and in that the number of component parts increases.